Royal Commission on Toponymy & Dialectology

Annual Report 2015

Summary

The Royal Commission for Onomastics and Dialectology performs its scientific task under the high patronage of the Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie van België voor Wetenschappen en Kunsten and the Académie royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique. It is the scientific aim of the Academy to study the onomastics (toponymy and anthroponymy) and the dialectology, especially in Belgium in both Germanic and Romance areas. The Commission therefore brings out scientific studies (Bulletin, Publications) about these disciplines. The Commission is also an advisory body; the government can always ask for its scientific advice.

Meetings

The statutory meetings took place in the Paleis der Academiën – Palais des Académies in Brussels (Hertogstraat 1, rue Ducale) on 26 January, 18 May and 16 october 2015. There were six section meetings: each time two of them on 26 January, 18 May and 26 October 2015. A plenary meeting was held on 26 January; and a meeting of the board took place on 18 May and 26 october 2015.

The Commission has its own regularly updated website that documents the Commission's scientific and advisory proceedings as well as the individual scientific activities, publications and international contacts of its members.

External editorial board of peer reviewers

The members of the Royal Commission for Onomastics and Dialectology have decided to establish a new editorial board for the periodical of the organisation (Handelingen / Bulletin). This editorial board will consist of both the Commission's members and the following eleven international experts, drawn from the various branches of science that are represented in the publications of the commission: Eva Buchi, Jean-Pierre Chambon, Georg Cornelissen, A.C.M. Goeman, Ludger Kremer, Wulf Müller, Bertie Neethling, Hermann Niebaum, Damaris Nübling, Jean-Louis Vaxelaire en Stefan Zimmer.
The members of the Commission and its external editorial board will jointly guarantee the international quality and safeguard the outstanding scientific content of the journal.

External Activities and Publications

The Bulletin LXXXVII (2015) counts 227 pages. It was exchanged for a number of periodicals and with scientific institutions. The publications acquired by purchase or exchange were stored in the library, which is located in the library of the Palais des Académies – Paleis der Academiën in Brussels (Hertogstraat 1, rue Ducale). 20 copies are placed at the disposal of researchers and students at the scientific centres of the Belgian universities.

Number 26 of the series Mémoires of the Walloon section of the Royal Commission for Onomastics and Dialectology has been published in March 2015.
The present dictionary by Jean Loicq, contains the first comprehensive overview study of hydronyms in the Walloon Region of Belgium. Because of the richness in Celtic and more often “Palaeo-European” names of this territory and above all the Ardennes, this inquiry results in a comparative contribution to the ethno-linguistic history of ancient Europe. The book draws attention to many forgotten rivers or small streams, mainly dialect-named, revives their memory, brings them into the international currency, and so contributes to the maintenance of an unrecognized part of the Wallonic patrimony. On the whole, this work concerns geographers and historians, as well as comparatist linguists and dialectologists.Bibliographic data: Jean Loicq, Les noms de rivières de Wallonie y compris les régions germanophones. Dictionnaire analytique et historique. Mémoire 26 de la Commission Royale de Toponymie & de Dialectologie, Section Wallonne. Éditions Peeters, Louvain-Paris, 2014. LII + 405 p. ISSN 0774-8396. ISBN 978-90-429-3051-3.

Actes du XVIe Colloque de la Société d’onomastique française
The proceedings of the XVIth conference of the French Society of Onomastics (SOF) appeared in 2015. Thts scientific meeting took place in the Paleis der Academiën – Palais des Académies (Brussels) from 6 to 8 June 2013 in collaboration with the Walloon section of the Royal Commission for Onomastics and Dialectology.
Bibliographic data: Mode(s) en onomastique. Onomastique belgoromane. Sous la direction de Michel Tamine et Jean Germain. ISBN : 978-2-343-05955-6. L'Harmattan (Paris). 388 pages.

With regard to street names the Commission was consulted by numerous Belgian local authorities in 2015. The Commission further continued the linguistic adaptation of the geographical names of the ordnance survey maps published by the Nationaal Geografisch Instituut – Institut National Géographique.

The Royal Commission for Onomastics and Dialectology has been represented by its members at several international scientific meetings, which allowed them to maintain contacts with their colleagues in Belgium, Cyprus, France, Germany, The United Kingdom and The Netherlands.